Signaling between vessels upon water



L. I. BLAKE. SIGNALING BETWEEN'VESSELS UPON WATER. No. 505,150.

(No Model.)

Patented Oct. 3, 1893'.-

m MEX" is indicated a. sooutl-proiiociog apparcws of varying den'siiyimaging over the Water fiC the essential ports of lire invention areillus- EiGiiALENG BET *V'Eiii i "i lrr eoiir @rrrce.

BLAKE, OF LAXVREI CE, KANSAS.

3*! WATER.

PEGIEIGATXQN forming part of Letters Paieni; No. 508,151 dated Getoioer3, 1893;

Application filed Cvctohcr 1, 1889. Serial No. 325,685, (No Inoc'lcl.)

To ('l/ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known ihet I, LUcIEN I. BLAKE,e ciri- 'zon of rho Uniteol Statics,residing at Lawrence, in the county of Douglas and State of Kansas; haveinvented certain new and use 1 ul 1m provomen its Relating to SubmarineSignailing, of which theiollowing is o specifier tion.

The porpose, primarily, is to prevent col.- lisioos between vessels intimeof fog and at eight, by warning them of each others urescnce, and inlike manner. to prevent ship- Wrecks by warning vessels of the proximityof a dangerous shore; and e secondary object is to furnisl o meeus'ofcommunication between vessels, or between vessels and the shore,dependently of ilie state of the Weather.

Having thus mentioned the purpose of my invention, 1 wiil proceed todescribe it, at first, in general end-then in detail, reference bole-gmode to tiie accompanying drawings, in which trcicd.

' Figure 1 shows two transverse sections of ihe hell of a vessel; in theieia-brmcl one iiiere whicirie shown more in detail, insocizic'ncl View,in. Fig. 3. In the right-hand section of Fig. 1 there are indicated twosoumi-rceeiving'mechanisms, one of which is shown more in detail, insectional View, in Fig. 2.

ii: iea. well knowil fact in science and in. practice that theatmosphere is exceedingly uncertain and variable in its capacity for thetransmission of sound to any considerable distance; that the wind andthe strata of air obstruct and e'iefiecx'; the sound, so that fog hornsand sirens and ociis are often unreliable means of signaling even tosmall dis tmices.

Experience shows that collisions beiween vessels in the fog or at nightgenerally occur through ignorance on the out of tire veseols, oi eachothers presence, although attire time each may be sounding its fogsignals. in such cases the. air has failedio transmit the somois or hasdeflected them away. Water es .9, medium of communicating souoci ie notmi'bj eci: to the some iiiificuity. Sounds ro not meierieilga lieaiecicdor obstructed at any rate the conditions of fog and storm thetmeke theatmosphere utterly-unreliable as a sound trensmiiter do not seriouslyafieci: the conductivity of the Water. leis upon this superiority oiwater as a sound medium that i rely in my invention. i

In its general form, my method embroces, first, the proriuolioo iothcwater of certain sounds, oorrsiiimting characteristic and intelligi oleeiguelgby means of suitable apoliances iocaicrl upon ilie vesscloroonfiected Wiiii the shore as the case my be; second, the transmission.of these sound signals by and throiigii the water to distances limitedonly by sloe iiiizeosii-y of the sounds; third, the reoepiioo of iliesesignals fliliJOf the water by r eciiebio' appliance which I have chosento designate by the term hydrophone.-

I will first proceed to a description of the hydrophozie. have orovod byexperiment mo eozuuii vile: i-ions traversing the water will importthemselves to and will pass through ccomor e. diaphragm of metal c T811inches thick. Teking advanfeci, the liyorophooo consists esplate,preferably or mete-l, bev irom several square inches to S9?- erei Eiqlir fe-er, occordieg Lo circornstences of Replica-moo, and a thicknesssciiicient to resieo the gressure and commotions of the water inflehicliit may be immersed, and the striking of foreign. substances; as ice,&c., against it. This plate, in the preferred construction, serves as adiaphragm to a. resoceotieliy oing on are jnonce chamber, whose othersides may be oi any suitable material and whose simpe and size may besuitably varied. to adapt the structure to the special conditions of itsuse. Connected with and projecting from this resocence oirembcr are oneor more ear-tubes or souogi coodnotors, leading to any place or placesin the vessel convonientffor an ob-- server. Preferably the observersroom should be placed low down in the bull, so as to be affected as limeaspossible by the dash of the waves.

While, as above indicotecl, the sound-receiving diaphragm is preferably05. metal, yet menifesely other eouorous maiorials may be iherei'or; meso also, instead. or, inseri o coco-lei to off eo'ooroiis me scriei iconaperture formed in the walls of a vessel, the walls themselves, or asclectedvportion of the walls -especially in the ease of iron or steel,vessels may be utilized as a diaphragm, the\ part thus selected beingmade to form one side of a resonance chamber constructed immediatelybehind it, or' being made otherwise to receive upon its inner face thesound-receiving apparatus.

In the Vessels interior, and against the side or portion ofthe sideselected as the dia phragm, oragainst the inserted plate, is built theresonance chamber. Any sound vibrations traversing the water will be communicated to and will produce corresponding molecular vibrations in thediaphragm. "hese vibrations ofthe diaphragm incite sonorous vibrationsin the air column of the hydro phone, which in turn arecornmunicated bythe ear-tubes to the ear of the observer. Sounds feeble in the water arethus intensified and rendered efficient as signals. By employing two ormore hydrophoncs, placed in difierent partsof a vessel, with ear-tubescommunicating to common place of observation, the direction ofthe ori inof the sound signals may be determined, and thus the direction orposition of a vessel or of the shore nlay be more accurately determined.The resonance chamber of the hydrnphone, although receiving all sounds,intensifies sounds of one particular pitch above all others. If thesounds employed as signals are predominantly of the fundamental pitch ofthe h'ydrophone, then is the sensitiveness of the hydrophone intensifiedin regard to them, and other sounds extraneous and disturbingarerelatively deadenedl The accuracy in the receptiou'of the'signals isthus increased. Referring to the drawings, 15.,in Fig. 1, represents thehull of ship in which there shown two hydrophones, B, B, with soundtubes, 0 c, from the resonance chambers to the observers room D.Theconstruction of the hydrophone is shown more in de tailin Fig. 2, inwhich E is a metallic plate bolted the Walls of an opening in the sideof a Wooden vessel; F being aresonance chamber constructed upon theinterior of said platen-nil c the sound tube leading thence to station.

piece of the purely mechanical hydroue just described, anelectromechanical hgorophcne, of the nature ofua telephone, constructedas follows: In lieu of the satanic-en {the other parts of the mechaniealJone remaining the same) a circular made in thc'rescuance chamber, sixre or less in diameter, over which mhranc of any suitable elastic maasgoldb'ealers skin, or any light thin ""ghliy stretched. Connected withe, or formed in part by it, may as microphone or electrical sound--smitter, in'circuit with any suitable telenil?) phonic receiver, '30that vibrations of the air the siren and column of the hydrophone inrybe communicated by means of the membrane to the n; crophone and thus tothe telephone located in any convenient part of the'vessel. Further, theresonance or air chamber may be entirely dispensed with, and themicrophone attached directly to the diaplirngin ln the walls of thevessel; in which case, the molecular vibrations of the diaphragm, whichhave been produced by the sound signals arr v ng through the water aredirectly the exciting cause of the microphouic action, without anintermediate pulsating air column. p

The preferred mode of producing the slgnals, add this in itself is adistinctive part or feature of the iuvcnliomwis by the use of someapparatus, such for instance as a water siren which will produce a rapidand regular succession of blows upon the water, and will thus create amusical tone, as distinguished from a more ordinary and undefined sound.Such sounds as have a distinguishable pitch or are characterizable asmusical sounds or tones will be found to have much greater penetratingpower than any others.

A water siren I define as an apparatus such as an ordinary siren inwhich the usual an:- or steam jet is replaced by a water jet and whosedisk may be revolved by power other than that of the issuing water. TheWhole siren may be immersed in the water about the vessel, and by meansof short and long blasts and pauses the Morse telegraphic code may beemployed for communication; Such a construction of sireuis shown, invertical section, in Fig.3 of the drawings. G isa disk of metal mountedon a shaft to which is attached apulley for drivingit by any availablepower at the required speed.v This disk is pierced with series of holeswhich as the disk revolves register pcriodicaily'with holes piercing theWall of the vessel. H is acham- "oer surrounding the disk andconstitutes the channel whereby water or steam forced through th feedtube I is delivered to the face of the dish. This siren is showninelevaiiouon a smaller scale in Fig. 1. v

Although in the two views, Figs. 2 and 3, the hydrcphonc are shown ashaving; approximately the same area, yet in actual construe the vessel Kof ion it. will be found that the siren ca n- .he madevery much. smallerthan the sound receiver. Y

It will of coursebe understood from what has been said above, that forthe purpose of enabling passing vessels to communicate with the shoreand to receive signals therefrom, a suitable submerged diaphragmtogether with a suitable sound producing apparatus, constructed on theplan of the hydrophone and of the sound transmitter above described, maybe established near to and in communication with the shore station.

What is claimed as new is- 1-. The hereinbefore described improve mentin the art of submarine signaling, which consists in producing in thewater, by means of a rapid and regular succession of blows or chamber,for reinforcing the sound vibrations impulses thereon musical sounds ortones, taken up from the water. 5 and taking up the vibrations by asuitable 4. The combination of a submerged diasubmerged receivinginstrument. phragnr placed in or forming a part of 'the 2. Incombination with the walls of a ship walls of a ship orothcrvcssel,andaresonance or other vessel, and forming a part of the chamber whichis attuned to the pitch of a same, asubmerged diaphragm and sound-rc--sound producing apparatus placed on the 20 ceiving apparatus as hereinsetforth, as a shore or on another vessel.

means of taking up sound vibrations trans- T I AKF mitted through thewater. LUCIEB I) l 3. In combination With a submerged dia- Witnesses:

phragin placed in and forming a part of the \V. C. SPANGLER, 7

wells of a ship or other vessel, a resonance Winona NETCALF.

